Packing and Shipping Artwork

I spent a good chunk of yesterday packing up all my pieces for the "Driven" exhibition at Skyline Farms in Yarmouth, Maine. Seems like only yesterday I was collecting images and brainstorming for painting ideas for this show….

It took far more time preparing the works than I had anticipated. This is my first invitational exhibition, so I’ve got a little bit of a learning curve, too.

I labeled, inventoried and tagged each of the paintings. This is a normal procedure for me, but I also wired and prepped them for hanging (which is something I typically leave for the customer to take care of).

I went over their surfaces with a clean tack cloth (it wouldn't do for them to arrive with cat hair!), and wrapped them in brown paper. Then each package was labeled again with my contact information and the paintings’ title.

I grouped them by size, shipping 2 pieces to a crate, with their faces inwards/towards each other. I wrapped each parcel with strapping tape, to avoid any shifting or rubbing that might occur during shipment.

Then I nestled the parcels into airfloat crates. For those of you who don’t know about airfloats, they are boxes made specifically for shipping artwork. The paintings are literally nestled – a bottom layer of egg-foam, a central perforated layer of foam (you remove a portion to snug the painting into the center of it), and an upper layer of egg foam. The box itself is lined and puncture resistant. These crates make for worry-free shipping, honestly.

So, after I got the paintings into their respective boxes, I labeled the inside of each box (gotta make sure that my crates come back to me!) and also included an inventory. Two actually - a master list of all the paintings going to the show, and also a packing list of what was only in that box.

The packing list included photographs of each painting, along with insurance values. This way my paintings will be returned in the same packaging and configuration.

The show opens on Saturday, October 7th, at 5pm. There will be a reception with the artists (sadly, I will not be in attendance) through 8 pm. THe show will hang from Sunday, October 8th through Sunday, October 29th. Their hours are Sat-Sun 1-4pm, and Wed from 6-8pm.

Now I’ve got several other juried exhibitions I’m starting to think about and prep paintings for, but for the most part, will focus the next few months mostly on commission works. Nothing like a pet portrait for the holidays!!

I still have a few more openings for holiday gift giving. If you are thinking about commissioning a pet portrait as a gift, please drop me a line (ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com), and we can discuss your project in greater details.

Kimberly Kelly Santini
www.turtledovedesigns.com
distinctive pet portraits
& 4-legged paintings